Staff Pick

This is one of my very favorite books. It's a beautiful love story that's never sappy, and it breaks my heart each time I read it (which I'll keep doing forever). The Time Traveler's Wife is one of those books that make you feel lost without it when it's over. Recommended By Emily F., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals  steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Review

"[A] highly original first novel....[A] soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes....[L]eaves a reader with an impression of life's riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Review

"[C]leverly executed and tastefully furnished if occasionally overwrought....A Love Story for educated, upper-middle-class tastes...it could have some of that long-ago book's commercial potential, too." Kirkus Reviews

Review

"[A]n unabashed homage to love, a tear-jerker of the first order which also happens to be an absorbing existential exploration of 'being' and temporality." Literary Review

Review

"This is Niffenegger's first novel. It's amazing and wonderful (except for a trickle of sap at the end), and I wish I could go back in time to the day I started reading it and read it all over again." Detroit Free Press

Review

"At turns playful, wearisome, and moving....Yet this lengthy novel is not all it could have been; at times, Niffenegger seems to be working out an idea rather than shaping a story." The Boston Globe

Review

"As The Time Traveler's Wife heads toward its immensely moving inevitable conclusion, this promising author leaves us with much to ponder about the nature of fate, memory, death and love." The Oregonian

Review

"Accomplished as this novel often is  Niffenegger is especially dexterous in handling multiple domestic events common to relationship novels...one hopes to see what she will do next using more recognizable forms of storytelling." The Washington Post Book World

Review

"Ms. Niffenegger alternates the voices of Clare and Henry telling the story...so that the reader gets to know both characters intimately....It's not the plot but how it works itself out that makes this novel a delight." Dallas Morning News

Review

"Niffenegger's beautiful prose and sure-handed way with character development lifts The Time Traveler's Wife beyond the realm of romance potboilers and into the mainstream of literature that will last." Denver Post

Review

"Niffeneger takes the stuff of science fiction and makes it so real that the reader moves past the premise of time travel to become emotionally involved in the lives of the characters....[It] pulls the reader into its world and doesn't let go until the last page." South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Review

"Though the book remains a kick throughout, Henry and Clare, from any angle and at any time, gleam with unapproachable, off-putting perfection; imagine, say, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston." San Diego Union-Tribune

Review

"[M]ore magical realism than sci-fi, and above all it's a surprising and compelling love story....Niffenegger avoids the drag of sentimentality and keeps it soaring with genuine emotion." St. Petersburg Times

Synopsis

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

About the Author

Audrey Niffenegger is a writer, professor and visual artist. Her first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, was an international bestseller that received praise from USA Today, The Washington Post, People Magazine, and The Denver Post, among numerous publications. Niffenegger has received residencies from the Ragdale Foundation and the Corporation of Yaddo, and has also received a Fellowship in Prose from the Illinois Arts Council. She received her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Northwestern University. Her writing has been published in The Chicago Tribune, Zoetrope, and The London Guardian. Her art is in the collections of the Newberry Library, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Library of Congress, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and Temple University, among others. She lives in Chicago, where she teaches writing in the Interdisciplinary Books Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts.

Reading Group Guide

Q> On the novel's first page Clare declares, "I wait for Henry." In what way does this define her character, and how is the theme of waiting developed throughout the book? Q> Just as Clare is defined by her waiting, so Henry is defined by his unpredictable comings and goings. That-along with his hard drinking and proclivities for stealing and beating people up-might be described as stereotypically masculine behavior, just as waiting might be called stereotypically feminine. What keeps these characters from being stereotypes? In what ways does the author give them depth and nuance? For example, at what points in the book do Henry and Clare reverse roles? Q> Niffenegger portrays Henry's time traveling as the result of a genetic disorder, which is explained at some length later on. How plausible is this explanation-not from a scientific point of view, but from a dramatic or literary one? Do you think that Henry's condition requires an explanation? Q> How has Henry's personality been shaped by his bouts of chrono-displacement? How does his time traveling affect Clare? In addition, how is Clare affected by meeting her future husband when she is six and seeing him repeatedly throughout her childhood and adolescence before they become lovers? How does the author manage to make their relationship seem eccentric-and even enchanted-rather than sinister? Q> What is the particular significance of Henry's job as a librarian? What connection do you see between his choice of career and his childhood fascination with the Field Museum (pp. 27-36)? Q> Along with his frequent trips backward and forward in time, the critical event in Henry's early life is the hideous death of his mother, which he witnesses as a child and revisits compulsively as an adult (pp. 110-14). How has this event helped shape him and how does it foreshadow other events in the novel? Q> How does the author manage her novel's fantastically intricate time scheme? For example, where in her narrative does she relate the same incident from different perspectives in order to supply missing information? How does she foreshadow such developments as Ingrid Carmichel's suicide, the birth of Alba DeTamble, and Henry's death? Q> Among the curiosities of the book is the way chrono-displacement occasionally causes its protagonists to split and double. At the age of nine Henry is taught pickpocketing by his twenty-seven-year-old self (pp. 50-6); Henry returns to his thirty-three-year-old wife after making love to her on her eighteenth birthday (pp. 402-414). After Henry has a vasectomy at the age of thirty-seven, Clare becomes pregnant by a thirty-three-year-old "surrogate" (pp. 363-5). How do Henry and Clare view their younger and older selves? Why, for one thing, aren't they ever jealous of them? And what are this novel's implications about the relationship between time and the self? Q> In theory Henry's time traveling should make him omniscient-at least as far as his own timeline is concerned-but Clare knows things about him that he does not. What accounts for this? What role does the characters' knowledge-and the gaps in their knowledge-play in the novel? Q> Closely related to the theme of foreknowledge is the idea of free will. Does Henry's chrono-instability give him a freedom that Clare lacks, or does it make him more powerless? Discuss Henry's observation that "there is only free will when you are in time, in the present" (p. 58). Q> When Henry asks her to describe her artwork, Clare tells him that it's about birds and longing (p. 15). How do the themes of birds-along with wings and flight-and longing figure elsewhere in this book? Q> What is the List that Henry makes for Clare, and how does it give the book dramatic momentum? Does Niffenegger employ other devices to similar effect? One of the things that makes a story suspenseful is the reader's sense that events are reaching a climax, that time is running out. How is Niffenegger able to impart this sense to her readers, given Henry's seemingly inexhaustible supply of time? Q> Both Gomez and Celia warn Clare about Henry. "This guy would chew you up and spit you out . . . He's not at all what you need," says Gomez (p. 420). Can we simply chalk those warnings down to jealousy, or might the observers be correct? Is Henry more ruthless and amoral than he appears to Clare? How do you interpret Henry's statement: "I'm not exactly the man she's known from earliest childhood. I'm a close approximation she is guiding surreptitiously toward a me that exists in her mind's eye" (p. 149)? Q> How does Henry and Clare's relationship change following their marriage? How is it affected by their desire for a child? Q> Would you call The Time Traveler's Wife a comedy or a tragedy, or are such classifications relevant to a work that plays havoc with time and allows one character to appear periodically after his death? Q> How does the author use time travel as a metaphor: for love, for loss and absence, for fate, for aging, for death? To what extent are Clare and Henry a "normal" couple?

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating 4.9 (71 comments)

An enduring love story that bears re-reading. I am a different person each time I come to the book, and each time it renders a new meaning, reveals a new perspective. I keep a lending copy, and I recommend it often, but I'm careful who I recommend it to. Henry and Claire have become such dear friends, I take exception to those who don't embrace them as I do. Niffenegger's lyrical prose allows us to bear with Henry during his selfish phase by giving us glimpses of the man he becomes. We wait, breathless, with Claire as she endures the Time Until they meet in each other's present. As much as I read, no book has managed to replace TTW as my very favorite.

This book is such a sweet love story that it made me fall in love with the characters, the setting, the story. This book brought me so far into the story that I experienced many of the same emotions while reading it. Niffenegger wrote this story so smoothly and so life-like that it was hard to put down at any one moment.

Amazing book - while the intricacies and "rules" of time travel in this book are well thought out (time travelers cannot change history - events are predestined) the story itself focuses much more on human connections and how the time traveler's "condition" both draws him closer and farther away from those he loves. While the movie version did a decent job of focusing on the central romance of the story, the book offers numerous subplots that explore the darker, funnier, and more tragic aspects of time travel. While seemingly aimed at science fiction fans, the book should appeal to romance readers as well as readers interested in creative, non-linear storytelling.

The first time I read Time Traveller's Wife I thought it might be the best book I had ever read. The second time I read it, in 2010, I was certain. Love the concept, the paranormal aspect, the romanticism, but most powerful of all was the truth I found on each and every page...that within our own lives, we are virtually powerless against fate.

I loved reading this book! Niffenegger's writing made me care about the characters, identify with them and allowed me to feel their emotions roll off the page. I laughed out loud at times and cried so much I had to put the book down at others. It was a very unique look at a relationship over time. I really enjoyed all the twists, turns and jumps back and forth through time and space. Truly my favorite book of the last 10 years!

This book, although a bit confusing as to where you are in time, really catches your attention and pulls you in to the pain and confusion that is the life of a time traveler. Henry, as we learn, has a genetic anomaly that causes him to disappear from one place and reappear, naked, in another time and place altogether. We follow Henry as he meets Clare for the first time, in a field by her house, when she is all of six years old...and we continue to follow Henry, as his life plays out here and there, then and now.

Customarily a time traveler cannot meet himself, lest the fabric of the universe be somehow rent. This books twists the rules a bit, creating a tantalizing glimpse into the complications of anachronistic life and love in an unpredictably delightful, yet poignant, way.

Trying to accurately describe this novel by Audrey Niffenegger is very difficult to do without losing some of it in translation. While attempting to explain to a friend of mine what makes it so enjoyable, I found myself saying things like, "it's a really nice love story about a couple who overcomes unique odds...but I wouldn't consider it a romance novel," or "it's neat how they explain this man's condition of uncontrollable time travel as a genetic disorder...I read it after I took genetics in college and [furrowed brow]...don't worry, it's not a science book." The truth is, there is an element of everything that makes a great story, at least in my humble opinion. Yes, there is a tragic love story, yes, there is some biology in it, yes, it's got an element of fantasy/science fiction, yes, there are some amusing pop culture references, yes, it makes you reflect on fate and on your own relationships, but ultimately the reason I think "The Time Traveler's Wife" is so successful is because it is so unique. You can't put it in a box and a say, "it's an x kind of story." Henry is a wonderful addition to the world of fiction and despite his implausible circumstances, he feels about as real as any fictional character can. The best way to explain what makes this book so wonderful is to give someone a copy.

This book is not specifically about time travel or specifically about the Time Traveler's wife. Relationship, aloneness, growing up stories, and children and adult issues are included in this story that spans a lifetime--almost two separate lifetimes. The expected twist at the end (that every GREAT novel possesses)makes the book appear unending. A book that does not merely tell a tale, but causes you to wonder and reason is a book worth reading!!

This book has stuck with me like no other I've ever read. It's science fiction in the most obvious way (it's about time travel), yet set in such a normal, realistic world that it's typically (and accurately) categorized as regular fiction. The characters were so real to me, and their relationships so true to life, that I really felt like I was inhabiting the book along with them. Another bonus: This book is a very different experience when read a second (and third, and fourth...) time. I've shared this book with many people, and most of them have also fallen in love with it.

I loved this book! It's one of the few books I own. I didn't go see the movie, because I didn't want it to ruin my own version of the story and characters. I gave a copy to my aunt who hasn't read it and she's in for a treat.

I've always been intrigued by time-travel fiction, and I thought this was one of the best. I was drawn in immediately by the connections, associations, and time-travel difficulties between the lead characters at different ages, although that might not work the same for all readers, as two of my friends were unable to get into the book because it "jumped around too much". But the young/old, old/young, multi-generational interactions were all very interesting for me and I thought it was a great read (I enjoyed the movie, too).

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read this when it first came out. It took the release of the movie.
Clare and Henry demonstrate true love, not romance. Their ability to accept each other's foibles and quirks. I wish everyone would read this book to truly understand the power of relationships.

I work as a writer for a living, and after years of college and over a decade working as a technical writer, somewhere along the way I became the sort of reader who reads for information only. I had thought that I was incapable of getting lost in a story until I read this book. I could not put it down. It was wonderful and everyone I've recommended it to has loved it.

This was a book that I hated to see end. As I reached the final chapters I read less each day and tried to savor the book as I remembered the segments throughout the day. I refuse to see the movie, because I know it could never compete with the images I've stored in my mind.

This is definitely the best love story I have read, maybe ever. I made myself slow down reading this book so that I could savor every tender morsel. (Even though, it was such a great ride I was tempted to devour it in an afternoon). After I had stretched it out as long as I could, and the story came to a close, I couldn't bear to let it go.
I read it again. (A personal first.)

This is the most profound love story! The ingenious creativity of the story line alone would be enough, but it's coupled with gorgeous writing and heart-wrenching challenges for the characters. It moved me deeply; poignant, courageous, and sweet.

I was moved to tears more than once while readng this book. It's amazing, it's science fiction concept AND a touching love story.
There is a great depth and range of emotions in this book that I've never found elsewhere.

I loved this book! It's an excellent read. I thought the storyline was realistic despite the fantastic premise, and found both lead characters very engaging. I especially liked how the author didn't try to explain the whys of time travel, just used it as a vehicle to propel the plot and characters.

I tend not to read too many fiction novels because I don't suspend disbelief so easily. But, this is one book with which I suspended disbelief and thoroughly enjoyed the very touching storyline. The book came highly recommended by a friend and I am glad I read it.

The Time Traveler's Wife is the best book I've ever read! No, really--I've been immersed in Claire & Henry's world, so many times I've read this book and get more joy out of it each time... The way Audrey Niffenegger uses words and lets one into the characters' lives gives true pleasure to the reader.

I loved this book. The story is convincing, characters complex, description beautiful. I've been to Audrey Niffenegger's home, which gave me more insight into her stories, and just finished her new novel as well.

If you have ever had a loved one with a mental illness, or have one yourself, you might find that Henry and Clare's situation isn't so far from reality after all. The sudden dislocations they experience are not unlike the dislocations of psychotic episodes. And many people have happy and loving, if complicated and often difficult, relationships in spite of the vagaries of the illness, as Clare and Henry did in spite of their time-crossed meetings and partings.
The main thing for me, though, was that Niffenegger created real people and put them in a world that felt real as one read it. That's what makes a really good book, for me--the author's ability to create a real world out of words and populate it with living beings.

Timeless romance. Time traveling. This story captivated me. Characters,plot,ideas...all fresh and absorbing. The combination of love and science fiction perfectly matched my interests and desires in a novel. I've recommended this book more often than any other in recent years.

I read a lot of fiction and no book in the past decade has stayed with me like this one has. The story is completely original and has you hooked from the beginning. I couldn't leave the couch during the last 200 pages...it's just that good. I even got my husband to read it and he rarely reads anything that isn't math. And he loved it too!

This is such a fantastic book! The Time Traveler's Wife is an utterly compelling and fast-moving novel that sucks the reader in from the start. I stumbled upon this the summer it came out in paperback while traveling in 2005 and it has remained at the top of my list of great books since then. Niffenegger has woven romance and science-fiction without being too sappy or too fantastical - making a believable, heart-wrenching, lovely text.

My vote for best of the decade. Simply one of the most refreshing and engaging books I've ever read. A great tale with a premise that, while seemingly something out of the sci-fi genre, is handled so naturally that the reader soon forgets the sheer impossibility of it all. Niffenegger builds an enthralling world with sympathetic characters, and writes with such a breezy and natural style that one almost forgets what a literary achievement this story really is.

As with all time travel narratives, the structure was an important element, here executed well. The resolutions of plot points were managed relatively tidily. The middle of the book moved slowly, though it could be argued that it was necessary both for establishing a domestic interval and for developing the theme that love doesn't solve all of the problems experienced by Odysseus afloat on the sea of time.
I did not enjoy the audiobook, which I interspersed with the physical book. The Henry reader sounded jaded, bored, and Humbert Humbert-like.

This is not your everyday romance novel. By telling us about Henry and Clare's love, their life, their normal joys and struggles as well as those instigated by Henry's genetic disorder that pulls him through time, Niffenegger fosters our own love affair with the couple. She helps us connect with them in ways only expert writers do -- we are able to see that despite our differences, we share so much.

in this book, audrey niffenegger tells one of the best stories of love. it'll have you addicted from the start. fascinated by henry's time traveling and wishing it never could happen. in this untraditional story about love, audrey niffenegger really puts the meaning to a bittersweet ending.

Henry is a time traveller, he has no control of when or where he goes, he just does. Clare is a artist who first met Henry when she was six years old and he appeared in her yard naked. Over the years (from Clare's point of view) Henry popped into her life from time to time. As she grows older she realizes that she is in love with him and that her loves her back. The only problem is Henry's constant disappearing and moving from time to time.
This romance/fantasy is very entertaining. A good read when you feel under the weather and just want to curl up with a good book that won't force you to struggle to keep up. This is an easy read and interesting.

First off, I don't like romances. This book is without a doubt a romance Second, I absolutely love this book. It's a romance like no other, told in a very untraditional manner. Henry DeTamble--the punk rock librarian-- could possibly be the love of my life... too bad he's fictional. I recently re-read this book, and it was just as powerful the second time around.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a love story in a pseudo sci-fi setting of time travel. Unlike other books about time travel, in this one there's no machines or tunnels through space. Instead, Henry has a genetic condition that causes him to spontaneously time-travel to moments in his own past or future. As the story progresses, Henry's unpredictable disappearances into the past and future become increasingly dangerous. The story is full of twists. It can be really confusing, but if you avoid trying to match every event up, you can sit back and enjoy it. I had a difficult time putting this book down. It was one of the best reads I'd had in a while!

finally! a great book you can give to your friends for all occasions...birthdays...wrap gifts...holidays...you will want to share this amazing story, but not at the expense of seeing it leave your house & shelves. devestatingly beautiful in its honesty & originality

One of the best-written & most intelligent novels I've picked up in years, 'The Time Traveler's Wife' completely defied my expectations & left me aching to buy copies for everyone on my list, even the cynics & stoics. It's far deeper than sheer sentimentality, and far richer than a simple love story or metaphysical tale. I'm also a huge fan of Haruki Murakami, & I can easily see other Murakami fans (there are indeed many of us) also loving this one.

Read this novel! That is the best way I can put it. I kept wondering what the characters were doing after I put the book down and went to work, I was totally engrossed in the story which is very rich on a literal and metaphoric level, and I am in no way embarrassed to admit I cried steady for the last thirty pages or so.

I thought this book was very clever in the way the author worked out the details of Clare and Henry's lives. In the beginning of the book you find yourself a bit confused by the time travel. But by the end of it, you are completely comfortable with it.
It is definitely a good 'book club' book. There is a lot to talk about.

I enjoyed Time Traveller's Wife much more than I expected to. I am not usually susceptible to romantic fiction, but Niffennegger is spot on both with her characterization and her weaving an engaging, non-linear plot.